Pulling power from 16' instead of 2"

Bathroom has a light, vent fan, 1 outlet, and switches for the light and fan. Outlet is not a GFCI so I need to replace. Problem: way too many wires in the box for it to fit. Looking at it closer, the fan was an afterthought in the bathroom... the wire is 50 years newer than the rest of the house. Whoever installed it (likely the hack-job PO) pulled power for the fan from the outlet on the other side of the room instead of from the light switch right next to it. Am I wrong in thinking that I can wire nut the light switch's hot wire with two short wires, one to each switch? It sounds so simple in my head that I must be missing something. The only odd piece I can think of is that the wire from the switch to/from the light is a single 12-2 wire, he used black for hot in and white for hot out, assumably the other neutrals are twisted together behind the light and avoid the switch. I'll have to determine which is coming in and which is going out, maybe that part confused him so he avoided it?